FDOC cuts to substance-abuse programs unwise

The Florida Department of Corrections is dismantling successful substance-abuse and re-entry treatment programs to fix a $28 million shortfall. The shortsighted action will adversely affect communities, offenders and businesses, and is totally unacceptable.

DOC Secretary Julie Jones announced last week that 33 community and in-prison substance abuse treatment and housing providers will have their contracts slashed or canceled. The total substance abuse reductions are over $22 million with community providers receiving a 43 percent cut and contracted in-prison programs a 48 percent cut.

The loss of substance abuse inmate programs means a greater likelihood of drug and alcohol relapse and a greater chance for repeat criminal offenders. The loss of therapeutic beds means no more graduated re-entry into society and offenders returning to their communities without critical substance-abuse treatment.

The DOC cuts also affect drug courts. Judges’ options to choose a substance abuse diversionary program over a prison sentence will be greatly diminished, thus continuing to crowd Florida’s prison system, and denying treatment to offenders in the community. Inmates currently in diversionary and re-entry programs receiving the cuts will need to be re-sentenced and re-assigned.

The cuts affect every single contracted facility that offers substance-abuse treatment and re-entry programs. The providers will lay off more than 600 fulltime employees. The promise by the DOC to re-establish programs once money is somehow back in the budget rings hollow with no plan to secure funding.

The money earmarked for substance abuse treatment before, during and after incarceration is already in the legislatively approved budget, but the DOC wants to move the approved funds somewhere else. It cites constitutional mandates to provide health care for inmates. But substance-abuse treatment is health care and needs to be considered such by our leaders.

The loss caused to communities, individuals and businesses is staggering. The Florida Department of Correction cuts to substance-abuse treatment programs (representing just 1.5 percent of the DOC’s $2.4 billion budget) should not be happening at all, let alone in the middle of the opioid crisis. Gov. Rick Scott and state leaders need to fix this before it’s too late. MARK FONTAINE, TALLAHASSEE Editor’s note: Mark Fontaine is executive director of the Florida Alcohol and Drug Abuse Foundation.